How to unprotect Excel sheet without password for free

Free Way 1: Unprotect Excel sheet without password using VBA codes

You may know little about VBA codes. But never mind. Here you just need to type several lines of VBA codes to unprotect your Excel sheet.Step 1: Open the Excel file. Press Alt + F11 to open Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

Tips: If you are asked for a password to open the Excel file, type in the right password. If you don’t know (or remember) the password, see how to remove or recover Excel password.Step 2: Double click on the sheet you need to unprotect. Then type the codes in the blank field as the picture shown as below. Be careful and do not miss anyone character or word.

Step 3: Click on the Run button and select Run Macro to run the codes.

Step 4: It will return you back to the worksheet and an alert box will appear with one usable password. Click OK and the Excel sheet will be unprotected immediately. You can modify the sheet without password.

Free Way 2: Unprotect Excel sheet without password using 7-ZIP

This way only works for Excel file in .xlsx format. Hence, if your Excel workbook is in .xls format, just open it and then save it as .xlsx format.Step 1: Change the Excel file name extension from .xlsx to .zip. Just click on Yes to make sure when prompted.

Step 2: Open the ZIP archive with 7-ZIP. Open the folder xl->worksheets and you can see sheet1.xml, sheet2.xml, sheet3.xml file. If you want to unprotect the sheet1, select the sheet1.xml file. Right click on it, select Edit, and open it with Notepad.

Step 3: Delete the tag beginning with sheetProtection. Then save and close the sheet1.xml file.

Step 4: Update the modified sheet1.xml file in the ZIP archive when prompted. Then close the ZIP archive.

Step 5: Change the ZIP fie name extension back to .xlsx. At this point, the Excel sheet has been unprotected. Open it and you can edit the sheet without password.

Conclusion: The above are two free ways to unprotect Excel sheet without password. They seem a slightly cumbersome, but they really do work. If you want an easier way to save time and trouble, try this Workbook Protection Refixer tool, which can instantly unprotect Excel sheet with just one click.

Post by Darren King · July 2, 2015 · Office · Comments Off on Free Ways to Unprotect Excel Sheet without Password